Purely for 3D Printing & Product Design

3D Printing the Lifesaver

This is the story of Pemela Scott and Micheal Balzer.

Pamela was having severe head aches and her doctor speculated a very severe migrane, and started treating her for migraine. Days past and Pamela’s headache went bad to worse .Her doctor prescribed a CT-scan which revealed that Pamela had a golf ball sized tumour behind her eyeball.

A traditional approach would be to perform craniotomy (which involves making a incision through the scalp then cut through skull) and remove the tumor in several passes of removing small chunks of her tomour.But there was a great probability of Pamela losing her memories as the frontal lobe of brain responsible for our personality would be exposed to risk of performing the surgery.

Micheal, Pamela’s husband was an IT guy who came to know about 3d printing and he decided to give it a try . he downloaded a free software that would make a 3d model out of the CT-scans performed . Micheal ran the program and made a skull model of pamela and gave it to the surgeons who would perform the surgery .surgeons studied the model and came up with a novel approach which drastically reduce the risk of Pamela losing her personality.

They came up with a plan of making an incision above the eyelid and remove the tumour, instead of going for craniotomy.

The surgery was a success and Pamela was out of the hospital within few days after the surgery. Thanks to 3d printing that people didn’t even release that Pamela had an incision made above her eye lid due placement of incision in the crease of the eyelid,.

click here to learn more about Pamela’s case in her own words –Pamela’s story

Case study

Kaiba Gionfriddo was born prematurely in 2011. After 8 months, his lung development caused concerns, although he was sent home with his parents as his breathing was normal. Six weeks later, Kaiba stopped breathing and turned blue. He was diagnosed with tracheobronchomalacia, a long Latin word that means his that windpipe was so weak that it collapsed. He had a tracheostomy and was put on a ventilator – the conventional treatment. Still, Kaiba would stop breathing almost daily. His heart would stop, too. Then, his caregivers 3D printed a bioresorbable device that instantly helped Kaiba breathe. This case is considered a prime example of how customized 3D printing is transforming healthcare as we know it.

Since Kaiba’s story, 3D printing in medicine has been skyrocketing. And the list of objects that have already been successfully printed in this field demonstrates the potential that this technology holds for healthcare in the near future.

Prosthetics revolution

One of the most storied and well documented medical uses of a 3D printer is to produce prosthetics for a fraction of what they would cost otherwise. Although custom made prosthetics are availible elsewhere, they can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000 which is unaffordable for some families not covered under medical insurance.

3D technology can create a customized prosthetic for a fraction of the cost. There are models for prosthetic hands online for free so those who own a 3D printer can print it themselves. 3D printing prosthetics is used to do great things in countries around the world, including war torn areas in Africa. A project based out of the University of Toronto partnered with Autodesk Research and CBM Canada to create prosthetic sockets for people in Uganda. Even in developed countries, 3D printing prosthetics is used to help both humans and animal regain the use of their arms or legs.

3D Printing in Architecture

Teams of architects in London and Amsterdam are competing to produce the first habitable printed structure, using technology that could transform the way buildings are made.

Future Of 3D Printing In Construction Industry:

Since its advent, 3D printing has been on a steady path forward. And the further along it moves, the more people have been wondering how it will affect and benefit all industries. In 2015, China managed to 3D print homes and other large-scale structures, making everyone pay attention to the possibilities for 3D printing in construction in particular.

3D printers allow an architect to be totally flexible in the shape of his designs. 3D printing can build curvilinear structures (rather than rectilinear forms). Using a concrete and composite mixture, 3D printers can build these curvilinear structures, which offer the strongest structural design, especially compared to the limits of rectangular forms.

As with any technology adoption, cost and convenience is a key factor and that’s where 3D printing scores above existing technologies. 3D printing can be used to produce a wide range of architectural models with high complexity which would have been impossible to visualize otherwise.

Cost3D printing enables architects and designers to create low-cost 3D architectural models with a high level of precision.

2. Time3D printing saves time in the early design and creation phases by reducing
the lead-time for architectural model production and allowing quick tests
of concepts and iterations. Since you save time on building the model by
hand, you can spend more time on developing different concepts of the
model.

3. Ease of UseThe ease with which sketches can be transformed into models makes 3d
Printing technology adoption extremely smooth.

4. Scale of UseThe best part is that no project is too large or too small; from developments,
cityscapes, and commercial buildings, to homes interiors, and swimming
pools.

5. Versatility

3D Printing in Fashion

Introduction

Additive manufacturing is mainly known for its applications in rigid objects, but is slowly finding its way into the movable world of textiles. At this moment most initiatives remain on the level of one piece elements for artistic expression. Examples of these are the creations of the Dutch couturier Iris van Herpen and Makerbot.

Materials for clothing products require flexibility, such as fall and drape of textiles, to be comfortable to wear. Technologies for additive manufacturing can offer these kind of characteristics to newly developed clothing materials or even complete garments. The first steps of this production technology for textiles have already been explored by Olga Sjöroos and Jussi Mikkonen of Aalto University in Helsinki, who created a 3D printed structure as a relatively equal substitute to a fabric and textiles by Freedom of Creation.).

Currently (as evidenced by the fact that these dresses are in a museum display), 3D-printed clothes are pretty much the exclusive purview of haute couture. But as the technology is adopted by more apparel makers, it has the potential to trickle down to the masses. When that happens, “it can be as revolutionary as the sewing machine,” said Andrew Bolton, Manus x Machina’s curator. “It means you can 3D print your dress to your exact measurements at home.”

Photographer: Nicholas Alan Cope/Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Couture clothes, in the traditional fashion industry definition, are “items made for you, that fit your body,” Bolton explained. Usually that means the garments are expensive, rare, and difficult to obtain. But with 3D printing, this extravagance will move into any home that has a printer. “Because it has the ability to mould exactly to your measurements, it’s environmentally friendly, too” Bolton said. “There’s no waste, whereas there’s always waste with textiles.”

“One area where I haven’t seen much growth is the combination of 3D printing with fabric,” said Bolton. “Like a structured, 3D-printed bodice, with a fabric skirt.” Debo compared it to the gradual introduction of electric cars. “Everyone is talking about a new industrial revolution, but I think of it as a normal evolution,” he said. “A mass production component will become a mass customized component.”

A “Flying Saucer” Dress by Issey Miyake from Spring/Summer 1994, which is included in the Manus x Machina exhibition

Photographer: Nicholas Alan Cope/Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

And what will it take for home-printed dresses to become a reality? “To my knowledge, there are a couple of companies working on this,” Debo said, pointing out that it would entail the printing of a natural fiber. “We’re still pretty far off.” Bolton echoes that sentiment, calling home-printing “a dream.” Yet both point to Iris Van Herpen’s more commercial designs as the first step. “It’s a slow process of adoption,” Debo said. “But of course, in the last two or three years, it’s changed quite rapidly.”

3D printing in the textile industry lets you unleash your imagination in order to quickly create new structures through innovative new materials.

Thanks to the wide choice of materials that we offer such as plastic or our new flexible plastic material (TPU), it is possible for you to 3D print your most ambitious projects in less time and associate them with clothing of any type to reinterpret the most classic styles.

Marrying different types of fabrics and 3D printing allows you to explore new facets in fashion and therefore to propose a new vision in the textile sector. In an avant-garde sector such as fashion, mixing the latest trends with the latest 3D printing technology will allow you to differentiate yourself from competitors.

The flexible plastic

Thanks to our materials engineers we managed to 3D print a new material, the flexible plastic, among the most flexible in the world. This material is thermoplastic polyurethane technology designed specifically for Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) with a level of Shore 65A which makes it highly flexible.

With this new type of material you are going to reinvent the textile industry by inventing fully 3D printed clothes. The flexibility of flexible plastic allows you how to create clothes with the most unusual shapes while keeping the flexibility of the fabric.

We have worked with many partners, especially with a young designer who wanted to show, through her collection, 3D printing clothes. It therefore replaced the tissue by 3D printing as a new material in order to before blending of traditional knowledge and technology.

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